Minimizing the footprint of your laptop (on your bedside table)

Abstract

I often work on my laptop in bed. When needed, I park the laptop on the bedside table, where the computer has to share the small available space with a lamp, books, notes, and heaven knows what else. It often gets quite squeezy. Being regularly faced with this tricky situation, it finally occurred to me to determine once and for all how to place the laptop on the bedside table so that its ``footprint'' - the area in which it touches the bedside table - is minimal. In this note I give the solution of this problem, using some very pretty and elementary mathematics.